Koch brothers – with fresh ideas and billions to spend – could be good for newspapers, says ex-editor

Former Chicago Tribune managing editor and Los Angeles Times editor James O’Shea: “I think with the Koch brothers, people will probably look at it and say, Well, OK, here are people with a lot of money, and maybe they’ll actually invest in the place and maybe they’ll have some ideas about how we diversify our revenue base and get away from this heavy, heavy, heavy reliance on advertising. …I don’t think anybody’s going to object too much if the Koch Brothers buy the Chicago Tribune and [the paper] has a libertarian, kind of right-wing editorial page.”

Former Los Angeles Times assistant editorial pages editor Matt Welch: “It would be such a culture clash inevitably between them [the brothers] and the newsroom there that it would be kind of open conflict for a long time. I would have a hard time imagining how they’d get out of that – how they’d calm that down in a productive way.”

THE PROGRESSIVE’S VIEW: “Choosing between [the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch] is like being asked whether you’d prefer the firing squad or the electric chair — either way, your long-term prospects aren’t so good.”